A/HRC/13/62 women from exercising their right to participate fully in all aspects of public life. This includes employment, especially with regard to work perceived as countering traditional roles and transgressing social norms. Women with a public profile are often accused of immoral behaviour, a message frequently transmitted by conservative religious leaders, including those with vested political interests. Attacks, threats and harassment against women in public life, often at the hands of AGEs, are a frequent occurrence and in most cases go unpunished. 27. Sexual violence against Afghan women and girls has, in all probability, continued to be underreported. Afghan women have repeatedly reported a loss of faith in law enforcement and judicial institutions, which they consider ineffective, dysfunctional, and corrupt. The misplaced stigma of sexual violence falling on the victim rather than the perpetrator, as well as lack of access to any form of justice or remedies for victims, has ensured that sexual violence remains a taboo subject largely unaddressed either by Afghanistan’s law enforcement institutions or by Afghan society. IV. Transitional justice 28. Re-establishing the rule of law and ending impunity for egregious human rights violations remains crucial to the realization of justice and the enhancement of peace and stability in Afghanistan. The time frame for the Action Plan for Peace, Reconciliation and Justice (APPRJ) expired in March 2009 with most of its proposed actions not yet implemented. The Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board (JCMB), a body responsible for implementation of the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS) in which the Action Plan is a benchmark, failed to address the issue and did not take decisive steps to envisage a comprehensive strategy to fight against impunity for past and current human rights violations. 29. Perpetrators of human rights violations and abuses not only enjoy impunity, but were also elected to public office. The effort to vet candidates based on their human rights record failed largely due to the inability of the Afghan judicial system to effectively meet the provision of the Electoral Law (art. 14). This stipulates that the disqualification of candidates for past crimes should be made on the basis of article 62 (3) of the Afghan Constitution which states that: “Presidential candidates should not have been convicted of crimes against humanity, criminal act, or deprivation of civil rights by a court.” The provision of this article also applies to the Vice President. Article 85 extends this provision to members of parliament. The need to change and improve vetting mechanisms became evident when persons with credible allegations of human rights violations and abuses against them stood for election or were appointed to senior positions in the Government. Their presence greatly undermined the legitimacy and credibility of the election process, and cast a shadow over the democratic future of the country. 30. In July 2009, the Transitional Justice Coordination Group (TJCG), composed of 20 representatives of human rights organizations, media and victims’ groups, issued a joint press statement calling on presidential candidates to include the Action Plan for Peace, Reconciliation and Justice in their presidential campaigns. The group also called upon candidates not to negotiate with individuals alleged to have committed human rights violations and abuses. UNAMA spoke out against the anticipated presence of these alleged perpetrators in the Government both before and after the election. 31. UNAMA worked with the Government, as well as with civil society and victim groups, to identify strategies to move the transitional justice agenda forward. OHCHR/UNAMA, for example, widely distributed the video “Healing Tears” which contains the testimonies of victims. It proved effective in raising awareness and in creating GE.10-10230 9